Our Theology of Ministry

Transcript

GRM 1170
09/18/2016
Our Theology of Ministry
Ephesians 4:11-16
Gil Rugh

Every year about this time I reflect on the fact that I came to start my pastorate here at Indian Hills in September 1969. I had someone in the first hour remind me of how old they weren't in 1969. But when I came, I came with a commitment and determination. I believed God had called me to pastor a local church and the focus and the teaching of His Word. In my meeting with the board as it was constituted then, I shared with them that I saw God's purpose for me in the church was to teach His Word regularly, systematically. And I understand that different men have different emphases, I wanted to be sure that we were on the same page. I told them that if they were looking for a man who would be doing this or functioning in this area, it wouldn't be a good fit. And by God's grace they were committed to a ministry of teaching the Word and honored that commitment, even from the beginning, supported my devoting time to studying the Word, teaching the Word, being involved in carrying the ministry in so many ways. And we've seen God bless. Many of you have been here for many of the years, many people have been moved on to other places and other ministries. During these 47 years there have been conflicts, trials. I was thinking they average out to about every 7 or 8 years. I try to keep track at that because at my age I may have been through my last one. But they come. And I'm talking about the kinds of things that happen that impact the whole church, that unsettle it. They are always unpleasant, but I try to keep myself focused. What are we to be about as a local church? You can't take the time to answer every lie, every slanderous accusation, every rumor, every conspiracy that people have heard about, every cover up. We have to be careful that we as a church are not distracted and turned away from what God has called us to do.

So to help focus myself, I pause and say God, you have called me to teach Your Word and that's what I must do. And I would encourage you, you hear things, things rumble around, just ask yourself, am I still being taught the Word? And that has to be true, not only from the pulpit, I see my role as creating an environment of focusing on the Word. We have the Word being taught in classes from the youngest age up, building the Word into lives from the youngest to the oldest, in homes. Our ministry is to be a ministry of truth. So rather than trying and allowing yourself to be diverted, I think of Nehemiah 6 where Nehemiah was doing the building that God had called him to do. The enemies of the Lord tried to distract him—come down, let's meet together, we'll work on it. Nehemiah said I'm doing a great work, I can't stop it. Sometimes we have to narrow our focus. Are you being taught the Word? And somebody wants to tell you the latest rumor, and the sad thing in all of these things, good people get caught up in every conflict. I've seen friendships that I had, close relationships in ministry, sadly come to an end. I consider them friends, but it's at a distance. We have to stay focused—what has God called us to do? To have a ministry of truth. Sometimes you lose friends, sometimes family relationships are strained, sometimes you just need to tell people, I'm being taught the truth. Well, have you heard about this? No, and I don't care to hear about it, I'm being taught the truth. Simplifies our lives. I don't have to say Lord, how am I going to resolve this? Lord, what am I going to do with this? Teach the truth.

I'm encouraged, at the end of his ministry in the last letter Paul wrote he says, “all who are in Asia have deserted me. And then when I went to trial, nobody stood with me.” The prime focus of my ministry cannot be to build friendships, although friendships come out of it. But the prime focus of ministry has to be on the truth, whatever the cost. So want to have a ministry that focuses on the Word.

And that's what I want to talk to you about, with a sermon that I've repeated more often than any others. I have preached this so many times, some people are saying I know it by heart. That's the goal so someday men, if somebody taps you on the shoulder and says Gil got sick, he can't come in. Would you come up and preach on Ephesians 4? You can say, I know that, I can give that sermon in my sleep. So we're going to look in Ephesians 4 because Ephesians 4 is our philosophy of ministry, or better, our theology of ministry. How we function, and knowing how the church is to function helps you understand how the devil opposes the work of the Lord.

I was reading an article by Charles Spurgeon this week and the little works he did called John Ploughman's Talks. And it was about gossip. Then he said the most effective tool of the devil to destroy the work is not murder, it's gossip. Try to destroy a person's reputation and his character and then you will have accomplished more than you would if you murder. And some of these things continue on. He wrote that in 1884, the devil's tactics don't change.

Come to Ephesians 1 to start, just a review, a reminder of the wonder and greatness of our salvation, all that God has provided for us in Christ. Look at Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” It gets no fuller, no more complete than that. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. And it's because of His sovereign choice, “just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” And some of these things I don't know that we will ever understand or appreciate to the fullest. We created beings, fallen in our sin and God in mercy, grace and love determined that He would bless us with the fullness of His spiritual blessing in the very glories of His presence. “This is all,” verse 6 says, “to the praise of His glory,” the glory of His grace. And that grace was bestowed on us in Christ. That's the message we share with people, the message that was shared with us, that God had His Son, Jesus Christ, come and die for sinful human beings so that they could receive from Him the fullness of eternal blessing, the splendor of His presence. Amazing.

How can we be sure? Just to summarize, down in; verses 13-14 he said “He sealed us with His Holy Spirit.” And that Holy Spirit is God's pledge, God's down payment, guaranteeing our inheritance, anticipating our redemption, we who belong to God. And it will be to the praise of His glory. I mean, it doesn't get any greater, any more wonderful or any more secure than that. Sealed. We belong to God for time and eternity, come what may you belong to Him. That Spirit of God who dwells within you is God's down payment. That word translated a pledge, an earnest, a down payment. You buy a house, they say you need to put earnest money, a down payment, something that is a guarantee you'll follow through. You say, I'll give $10. No, that's not enough of a down payment. We want enough that you will . . . Do you know what God gave us to dwell within us? The third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit. That's how sure the promise of God is that we will enter into the inheritance that He has promised us. God Himself is the guarantee in the person of the Holy Spirit. How great is our salvation.

And Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is you might grow in your understanding and appreciation. Verse 8 just for a sample, “I pray the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” We never want to grow comfortable, complacent, casual as we consider the salvation we have in Christ. We don't want to take it for granted, the splendor of it is yet before us. We just have a down payment and a taste but Paul says I want you believers to grow so your eyes see more, you have a better grasp, a better understanding. Just whets your appetite for more, the ultimate glory.

He concludes Ephesians 1, talking about this is all based on the finished work of Christ who has been seated at the right hand of God in anticipation of the culminating of our salvation. Our salvation, we usually break it down into three parts—justification, when we placed our faith in Christ and are declared righteous by Almighty God; sanctification, thinking in the progressive part, our daily walk as we are growing and maturing in Christ; and then glorification, that time when we will experience bodily transformation to bring us into conformity completely with the glory of God's own character.

Ephesians 1 ended, “and He put all things in subjection under His feet,” Christ because He is the One who will rule over all. “And He gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Establishing now is this metaphor or picture of the human body which is under the authority and rule of the head. So the spiritual body of Christ is the church which is comprised of His people who now function under His authority and His direction. The head gives the instruction. If something happens and I lose my hand or arm in an accident, the rest of my body continues to function under the direction of the head. But if you cut off the head, the body is non-functional. So the picture here. These different pictures, simple pictures that God in His grace has given to us so that we can have an appreciation of something of the relationship we have. We are to be the body of Christ in the world.

And the in Ephesians 2 he drew the contrast between what we were and what we are and thus how we ought to live. And the key here is how we walk, how we now conduct ourselves in what we call progressive sanctification. Sanctification is just the word holy, saint, sanctify. We now live as those who belong to the living God. So “you were dead in your trespasses and sins,” spiritually dead, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,” in obedience to Satan and so on. That's the way we formerly lived our lives. But the contrast will come, that we are not to live that way any longer. And he'll pick that up later, we'll see in a moment. But he goes on to talk about this transformation. This is what you were, dead in your transgressions, dead in your sins. But you are made alive in Christ. We were saved by grace.

He goes on at the end of the chapter to talk about this saving grace encompasses Gentiles and Jews. In this present age we have the church, Jews and Gentiles, former enemies. Gentiles excluded by and large in the work of God in salvation in the world, it is focused in one nation, Israel. Now Jews and Gentiles brought together, the enmity resolved, a new relationship built. So he says at the end of Ephesians 2 to these Gentiles, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, you are fellow citizens with the saints. You are of God's household.” Another picture—God's household, God's family. The church is the “household of God, the pillar and support of the church,” 1 Timothy 3 says. We are God's household. So another picture is we are the body of Christ, we could say we are God's family. And then he says, “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building is being fitted...” Now we are using the picture of a building. We could talk about the church as the body of Christ, we could talk about it as the family of God, we could talk about it as a building being constructed by God. Christ is the cornerstone, the teaching of the apostles and prophets is the foundation. And the whole building is being fitted together, it is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. The body of a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit and we corporately as the church are the place that the Spirit dwells. And we are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. This is what God is doing, this is included in that package of our salvation, how we live and walk

In Ephesians 3 he talks further about new revelation given regarding the church that was unknown before, but it was revealed to the Apostle Paul and his desire again at the end of this chapter. He prays for them, verse 16, “that God would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith so that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Amazing. We don't become God, but God's intention is to make us and ultimately we would be conformed to His character. What did He say? “You shall be holy for I am holy.” He doesn't say you shall be more holy than so-and-so, you should be more holy than Peter, or . . . No, you shall be holy as I am holy. That's what is being involved in being “filled up to all the fullness of God,” the end of verse 19. Before this is all done, this will be realized and that will take us to glorification.

Now how can this be done? Well, the next verse, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” What is that power that works within us? Back in chapter 1, the Holy Spirit who is given as God's down payment is the enabling power within us. “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Sounds like the end of the letter, there is more. God's work through the power of His indwelling Spirit will continue to develop us, to conform us to the fullness of God's character, culminating in the glorification and entering into the inheritance, that glory in His presence.

But we are not done. Ephesians 4 opens up, “Therefore on the basis,” and what the first three chapters of Ephesians do, and many of you have studied, is they lay the doctrinal foundation of what God has done for us in Christ, what He has provided for us in Christ, what He intends for us. “Now therefore,” and we pick up, back in Ephesians 2:2 he said, and “you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked.” Then now at the end of Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.” A change of what we do, how we live. We formerly lived this way, now we are to live this way. Pictured as a walk, our conduct of our life.

Now we come to Ephesians 4. “Therefore I the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have received in Christ,” because ultimately we are to be holy as He is holy. We are saints. Holy, saints, sanctification, all come from the same basic Greek word and its root is to be separated. God is holy because He is completely separated from all sin and all defilement. Now in Christ He has separated us for Himself and separated us from sin, its power and authority and control. But its presence is not removed, so the process. I walk in a manner worthy of the calling. It doesn't get any higher than that.

Down in verse 17 he'll say, “Walk no longer as the Gentiles walk,” like your unbelieving friends used to walk. It's that walk. Down in Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love just as Christ also loved you.” You see the standard for everything in our character and conduct now is God. You be holy as I am holy, you are going to be filled up to all the fullness of God, you'll walk in love as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for you, for us. Verse 8, “Walk as children of light;” verse 15, “Be careful how you walk.” It is a constant emphasis and the provision, verse 18, is we must be filled with the Spirit, under the control of the indwelling Spirit. Now I can conduct my life in all areas in a manner that is consistent with His will and His character.

Come back to Ephesians 4, I want to focus in on a passage we do often. The first part of this chapter talks about character that is to be ours in Christ. We “walk in all humility,” verse 2, “gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This is God's intention as we are walking in obedience to Him, conforming to His will in these characteristics we have seen. Humility and gentleness, Matthew 11, “take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am meek and humble, gentle,” and so on. But God has made provision for our growth. We were born again into God's family through faith in Christ, but we were not born as fully developed, fully mature; we were born with everything necessary for life and godliness. Like a newborn baby we have to grow, we have to mature and more of God's character is seen in every area of our lives.

The provision is, verse 7, “to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's given.” And the grace that was given to each one, each individual believer who has experienced the power of God's salvation that he talked about through those first three chapters now has been gifted by God's grace. God's saving grace is a gifting grace and that's why we call them charismatic gifts because the word charis, the first part of that, charismatic, is the Greek word for grace. They are grace gifts. So to each one of us, every single person who has been born again in Christ, who has experienced God's salvation has been the recipient of a gift from God. This grace, this ability to function, because remember we are part of the spiritual body of Christ. Well, if we are part of a body we have to have a place to function. That's why the analogy of the body. A baby is born, he has all the parts, they are there, but in the immaturity he doesn't know how to use them yet. So sometimes we put little gloves or mittens on their hands. Why? So they don't scratch their face. Well, anybody knows you don't scratch your own face, but he doesn't yet and he doesn't know how to use the parts yet. But all the parts are there. You are put into the body of Christ, and you are part of it, and part of your growth is recognizing how God will use us, what gift. These were gifts that were bestowed as a result of the coming to earth, the death, burial and resurrection and ascension of Christ in verses 7-10. So you can go from verse 7, Christ measured out the gift. You don't pick which one you want. You function in a variety of ways, but as you function as a believer you realize I am most effective in this area, God seems to use me more in this area than the others. This is an area that I am drawn to.

Some of the gifts are mentioned in verse 11, “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers.” Now this isn't by any means an exhaustive list, this is a list that focuses just on one kind of gift, gifts that involve the communication of God's Word. If you go to 1 Corinthians 12-14, you have a much more extensive list of various gifts. Romans 12 will mention some of the gifts as well, examples. These gifts he selects have to do with proclamation, the dissemination of God's Word. Apostles, they were those who received direct revelation from God, they were those who were the leaders and the overseers of the early church in its foundational days. Prophets were joined with them in that prophets received direct revelation from God but they weren't entrusted with the same oversight in the church, it seems, as the apostles.

Come back to Ephesians 2:19, that we are “fellow citizens with the saints are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone.” What are we doing? Well, we're looking now and studying the book of Ephesians. How was Ephesians given to us by God? Through the Apostle Paul. So we are building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the truth that had been revealed through the apostles and prophets now is recorded in our Scripture. It has the cornerstone which is key and central to everything, Jesus Christ. We have the apostles and prophets, then we have evangelists. And that is tied to our word Gospel, good news. These are those that we would call the “gospelizers,” that are specially entrusted with carrying the word of the Gospel to the lost. The gift I take it, apostles and prophets, are no longer present because we have the completed Word of God. There is no new material. Evangelists, I take it, a gift, we always need that because there are always unbelievers who need to hear. It's not only evangelists, we all can do the work of an evangelist, but evangelists are specially entrusted with that responsibility, carrying out the Gospel, sowing the seed and sometimes reaping. They provide that ministry.

Pastors and teachers, their gift closely connected grammatically here. Pastor has to do with the oversight, he's referring to the same men that are also called elders and overseers, translated bishops. Same individuals, words are used interchangeably, we have studied that on other occasions. The word pastor is a shepherd, comes out of the Old Testament background where kings and rulers were referred to as shepherds, pastors, and had the responsibility for the care and oversight of God's people. And a particular aspect of the work of these pastors is teaching, taking the truth that has been revealed by the apostles and prophets and explaining it. I have no new revelation to give you, I am here explaining to you and instructing you in what God has already revealed. This is a process. That's why I say when I came, I came and said I see my role to teach the Word. And I wasn't the only one then, and there are many more now who are doing the teaching. The focus of the church is the truth, it's the pillar and support of the truth.

So it goes on, these speaking gifts, these gifts involved in the communication of God's truth are for a purpose. Verse 12, “For the equipping of the saints,” those holy ones, those who belong to the holy God, “for the work of service.” So that equipping. So the teaching of the Word is not because this is all that is important, it is equipping, rendering fit the saints. Providing what they need so they can function as God intends them. So it's for the equipping of the saints for the work of serving. There are many other gifts besides the speaking gifts that are mentioned here. But the speaking gifts provide the nourishment, being nourished in the Word so that you become more discerning, more understanding, more appreciative of what God has done and more prepared to function as God gifted you to function. And some of that you recognize with the passing of time. You don't just lie in bed and say, I think I probably have this gift. How do you know? Well, I picked it out of them all. It becomes more evident as you function because in the variety of gifts we all show mercy, we are all to serve, we are all to give, we are all to know and understand biblical truth. But God has provided so that the body will have a balance. And Paul talks in 1 Corinthians, “what would the body be if it were all an eye or an ear.?” You need all the parts working together.

This is God's sovereign work. We couldn't put it together but He does. “For equipping the saints,” this is only for believers now, I can't equip the unbeliever. He is dead in his trespasses and sins. But it's equip the saints “for the work of service.” God didn't save us to sit in a rocker and wait for glory, He saved us to work. I know we live in a day when we are concerned about working too hard, and you must have enough leisure. But God saved us to work, the work of serving Him and doing His work. This is necessary to the building up of the body of Christ.

So what is going on now, God saved us but when we are saved we are immature, we're going to perfection when we are glorified. What about in between? It doesn't matter. He saved me and if I am in the hour when I die I'll still be glorified and it will all be . . . That's not God's plan. God's plan now is to take that newborn child who is born again by the living and abiding Word of God and now have that one grow and mature and become more like Him, more of His character seen in Him, more in His conduct conformed to the will of God. We are building up the body of Christ. Mixed the metaphor here, we are building it up, building the body, it's being nourished, it's being nurtured. But that doesn't happen just by the teaching of the Word of God. It's teaching the Word of God so that the saints can be equipped to function as they should so the body can be built up. But you know if the Word is not being taught, the process is frustrated.

I used to do the diagram where we would start out with the teaching of the Word and then the equipping of the saints and then doing the work of service. But do you know what? If there is no teaching of the Word going on . . . Sometimes I meet people and I ask them where they go to church, not necessarily in the city here, I'm on vacation and I ask. And they talk about it's a Bible church but the teaching is weak, but there are other good things about the church. Well, wait a minute, if the teaching is weak, how are the saints going to be equipped? And if the saints are not equipped, how are they going to do the work of serving? If they don't do the work of serving, how is the body going . . . Well, we do a lot of things together. That's not what we are talking about, we're talking about a spiritual process, a spiritual process. I can't come up with an alternative. This is the body of Christ, this is how it must grow. And so the way the devil relentlessly works is to weaken the teaching, to distract us from the teaching. He's happy to have us get involved in a lot of other things. That's not all there is to the church, by any means, but the rest of it won't be accomplished because it's the Word of God that's alive and powerful. We sang about it, these ancient words. They are not only what bring you salvation, as Peter wrote, as newborn babies long for the pure unadulterated milk of the Word that you might grow in respect to your salvation.

So that's the process. That's why I say conflicts come, distractions come. Stay focused. Are we being taught the Word? Yes, but did you know this? I received a letter from a dear friend, we've been close but he indicated our relationship wouldn't be as close anymore. And what he said in the letter was of interest to me—“reportedly this has happened.” Reportedly. You know that's one of those things that float in the air. “Reportedly, I heard this,” someone said. I said, “who reported that? As far as I know, it's not true; as far as I know, that's not what happened. Who has been reporting to you that you are making decisions?” We get confused, we get distracted. I say, what do we do? We have to come back. The church is about the truth, we have to stay focused. You can't get involved in every conspiracy theory that comes down the pike.

Did you ever think how much the church could be like politics? We love a good conspiracy, we love juicy gossip. Well, just think, you are reading on whatever you read on, one of these devices, and they always put these things up. Something you never knew about this Presidential candidate and they hope you'll never know. Oh, I have to punch that button because there probably is something juicy there and if there is anything I'd like to know, it is something I'm not supposed to know. And this becomes the church if we're not careful, it becomes a gossip center. We are a truth center. Well, I have something I'd like to tell you I heard. Well, I'm being taught the truth, would you like to talk about the truth? Well, I think you'd want to know this. Well, I'm really interested in knowing the truth.

Let's move on. How long does this go on? Until we all, everybody is included here, everybody is gifted, everybody has to be growing. The “everybody” we are talking about are those who are part of the body, part of the family, part of the building. “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” Nobody gets left behind. We are a growing family. Your children, you have them at different stages of growth and some grow faster than others and some seem to be more trouble than others. You don't just say, you are not as good as your brother, pack your bags. No, we have to bring them along. They may take more time, they may take more effort. Then you say, they did it again. Your brother never did that, your sister never . . . That's irrelevant.

So here we are, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” Where we are going? Why? Because there is a oneness. Back in verses 4-6, “There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” So we have to be growing until we have that perfect unity of the faith. That's a growth process. “And of the knowledge of the Son of God.” I'll never exhaust the knowledge of the Son of God, but I need to be growing in my knowledge of Him. I'm never done. “To a mature man,” that's what we are going toward. That baby is not done when it is born, that's a start. There is a process, there is a reason God uses these pictures. It's a process. The church is part of that process. A mature man, what does that mean? “To the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Until we are just like Christ. We'll never be deity, we'll never have infinite knowledge and so on. But we are to be holy as He is holy, we are to be one together as His body as He intends us as the head.

You know if you have a problem that develops in a part of your body, it affects the whole body. If you have a stroke and this part doesn't move anymore, the head is saying move but it doesn't move. There is something wrong, there has been a breakdown. We all know what that is like, we have all had a physical illness whether serious or minor, and we know what that is and how it impacts us. And the unity of the body is impacted. We are growing up until we are like Christ, we have the unity of the faith. He is the standard.

I am somewhat impatient with your failures, but I am rather patient with mine. I know I lose my temper sometimes, but I've grown a lot. I sometimes let my tongue say things and after it is out, I shouldn't have said that. But I'm doing better in a lot of other areas and I'm not as bad as some people. That's the way we look at ourselves, that's not the way God is looking at us, that's not the way He is looking at the church. We are to be growing up to Him in all aspects. We are to be growing up to Him so that we come to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. And do you know what? I can't get there without you, and you can't get there without me because it is a body growth, it's a family growth, it's a building growth. I just can't go off here by myself and do it. That's not the way God planned it, that's why the picture is a body, a family, a building. I just can't be a brick and go over here. I'm in the building. Just can't say, well, I just cut myself off. That's maturity, that's the result.

Where are we going? As a result “we are to be no longer children, tossed here and there by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.” You know children are immature, we have it in the news, we have it in our papers, children getting lured into things. We have concern for our children because they are more susceptible. The younger, more immature, the more susceptible. That's the way God says it is with His children. Immature spiritual children get caught up in whatever comes by, and whatever blows through the congregation will sweep some along. Every conflict, every battle is a sifting one. We're going to be growing so that I see through this, I didn't get distracted by that. Charles Spurgeon, quote him again, he said, “Some men begin their ministry, giving their people pure wine. And then along the way they start to give them wine diluted with water and then they are just giving water.” What happens along the way? We need to be mature and godly and functioning.

“No longer children tossed about by everything.” How do we get caught up? Some things that have come to me . . . I wrote to a person in response and said I don't even know what you are talking about. But it impacts people. Where does this come from? I know where the root of it is, I know the slanderer, I know the father of lies. I know who he is. But good people distracted.

“Speaking the truth in love,” we're back to the truth, in love. You can't get away from it. “Speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies.” Every part, every gift is necessary for the benefit of every person. It causes the “growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” It's not a complicated process, it's not something we'll have any excuse for getting off track. How will I stand before the Lord and say, “Lord, somewhere along the line I just thought I needed to take a sidetrack from teaching the Word because there were so many things going on that . . . “ Where did you get that idea? It seemed like a good idea. The Lord hasn't asked me to have good ideas. Do you know what He has told me to do? Be obedient. That's why He calls me a slave, a dulos, someone who does what he is told. What are we to do as a church? Do what we're told. It's not so complicated.

Isn't it wonderful, we can think in a proper perspective? God, how gracious you are. I know I am weak and frail as I can be and yet you saved me, you gifted me, you have put me in a body of believers because you want to use me to help that body grow. We ought to be in awe of that, and it's a built in process. This is how the body grows, this is how it matures. God has built it in. This causes the growth of the body for the building of itself in love. Oh, we do this on our own. No, because remember the Holy Spirit dwells in us individually and corporately. But you know the Holy Spirit is not at war with Himself. We are at war with the devil, the Holy Spirit is not at war with Himself. He is producing unity, He is producing oneness.

So this is the process that we have as a church. So for myself, I keep constantly checking myself, am I teaching the truth. God has called me to teach the truth. You being in a church, the number one thing you want to ask, am I being taught the truth. We have children being taught the truth because if the foundation is not there, you are not going to build any kind of durable structure. Then on that basis we grow together.

Now we're going to say something, I don't know if it will be misunderstood but that's all right. We move on. I am really disturbed at how little people think of their ministry. Every part is making a contribution here. Inevitably people leave, men that served in a key way in the church, and after service some night they come in and just tell you, we are leaving, we won't be back next week. What about your ministry? Do you just drop it? We get notes, we will no longer be serving in this ministry, this ministry, this ministry. We left. If you did that in your secular job, they would say he was irresponsible. You will never get a letter of reference from us. He just walked in or sent a letter and said you weren't coming back. But somehow in the church we think our ministry is trivial. God entrusts you with an area of ministry, responsibility of building the body and you say, I'm done, I'm not going back next week. Send them a letter, call on the phone. That's all we think of it? So we go through passages like this it comes down to what inevitably? People are left to scramble. What about the kids who can't get brought in? Guess they don't get to hear the Word. What about the kids that are going to be there, expecting to be taught? I can't help that, I'm leaving. You wouldn't do that in your secular job but we do it in the church. Tells you what we really think. We are so spiritual to continue on. I thought God gave you a ministry, I thought you said you were doing it because you thought God was……

I think we need to stop and reflect. Don't stop and think of so-and-so and so-and-so, but we want to be careful that we take it seriously, much more seriously than I would my job. We wouldn't think of walking in and telling my employer, I quit, I'm done. Or I'll just send them a letter and let you know I am not coming back. I hope we value the ministry God has entrusted to us, entrusted to you personally and us together. And we won't lose focus. Keep asking yourself, am I being taught the Word. Then the other stuff can blow around. I trust God will use the Word in my life, the lives of others and will use me so we can grow together.

Let's pray. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of the salvation we have in Christ. Lord, the privilege of having the truth that You have revealed in our possession. We not only come together to read it and study it, but we take it with us, we have it in our homes. Lord, we need to have it in our hearts, we need to have it fill our minds. Pray that we as a church will be a testimony of Your work of grace in our lives as we grow together, as we help one another to grow together. We realize the responsibility and importance of the work You have called us to, the work of eternal importance. Lord, a work that ultimately is effective because of Your grace in providing Your Spirit to use us in what only You can accomplish. We give You praise. In Christ's name, amen.